Shattered Ice
by Geeqad
Summary: Under the tutelage of Aizawa, the students of class 1-A take a trip to a frozen mountainous area to undergo some cold weather training. However, when an exercise goes awry, Izuku and Ochako find themselves in a perilous situation. Will they be able to find a way to safety? How will they deal with their fears when things go from bad to worse? Manga spoilers present!


Sneezing loudly, Izuku forced himself out of bed for his morning run. As his bare feet touched the cold wooden floor of his room, he stretched, feeling his bones click satisfyingly as he did so. Changing into a loose-fitting t-shirt and a pair of trackies, he began tying his shoelaces, smiling to himself as he did so.

He recalled how this used to be a chore, waking up at some godforsaken hour to run himself ragged in the name of making himself stronger. Strong enough to inherit the power that belonged to the Symbol of Peace himself, and while he still wasn't certain that he was worthy of such a power just yet, it would be foolish to ignore the progress that he'd made regarding the quirk. Despite this, he knew he still had a _long_ way to go until he could take All Might's place properly.

Standing up and heading down the stairs to the common room, he wasn't surprised in the slightest when he saw his class president awaiting him, dressed in similar attire to Izuku himself.

"Ah, Midoriya!" Iida greeted, his arm snapping into place in a warm gesture. "Prompt as always! Shall we head out?"

Hopping down the stairs, stood up straight next to his tall friend. "Yep, let's go!"

Opening the door to Heights Alliance, the two of them were immediately affronted with the brisk cold air of a winter morning. They quickly closed the door behind them, however, as they didn't want to have the chill of the air affect some of their other classmates, as they'd discovered the hard way previously, where Mina shouted at them relentlessly for leaving the door open a crack.

Ensuring that the door was closed properly, they turned around and braced themselves for the workout ahead of them.

Only for Izuku to slip on a patch of ice and tumble down the stairs.

"Midoriya!" Iida cried out, running carefully down the stairs so as to not suffer the same fate. Arriving next to his fallen classmate, he kneeled next to him. "Are you okay?!"

Groaning, Izuku attempted to push himself up only for his hand to slide on yet another patch of ice, causing him to knock his head against the cold ground beneath him, earning a small sound of concern from his bespectacled friend. "Yeah, I'm fine…" He muttered shamefully, "Just a bit winded, though…"

"What are you doing, problem child?"

Lifting his head to see who had just spoken, he was greeted with the sight of Eraserhead, their homeroom teacher staring at him with a tired expression similar to what he usually donned. However, Izuku noted that there was a slight sense of enjoyment at the situation before the exhausted teacher in his eyes.

"Good morning, sir!" Iida stood up quickly, saluting the man in question, with Izuku getting up as quickly as he could. "Apologies, MIdoriya had an accident because of some ice at the top of the stairs."

Huffing briefly, Aizawa composed himself. "Well, that doesn't matter. Are you two going to be long? I've got something to discuss with the class."

"W-we won't be long!" Izuku stuttered, setting off as quickly as he could whilst making sure not to slip again. Embarrassment wasn't nothing particularly new to the freckled teenager, but the last thing he wanted was for his reputation with his homeroom teacher to fall even lower than it already had through his 'vigilantism.'

And just as he had managed to make it a little more than one hundred metres away from Heights Alliance, he fell on his backside once again.

"If this keeps up, I swear…" Izuku muttered to himself, irritation rumbling in the back of his throat, pushing himself up off the cold, icy floor. How he was managing to slip this much was beyond him, but that wasn't important – what was important was keeping himself fit and making sure not to waste Aizawa's time.

Finally making it back to the building he'd gotten used to calling home for the past few months, he could see through the window that the majority of his classmates were awaiting his and Iida's arrival. Deciding not to waste any more of their time, he quickly let himself and his friend into the building, being sure not to let too much heat escape lest he face the wrath of the pink performer.

"Who's still to join us?" Aizawa called out as he noted the arrival of the two boys.

The vice president of class 1-A stepped forward to answer. "I believe Bakugo is the only one left to joi-" She was cut off by the sound of the elevator doors sliding open as the scowling teen appeared.

"What?!" The angry teen yelled as he saw the rest of the class staring at him.

"Good, you're here." Aizawa piped up, clearing his throat. "We've got a special trip we're going on today. We're taking a bus to Aomori for some cold weather training."

Iida's hand shot up immediately, awaiting approval from his teacher before he continued. Upon receiving said confirmation, he asked "If I may, how would going all the way to Aomori benefit us over simply training in the cold weather here?"

"An excellent question." The usually cold teacher smiled in approval, "We're heading there as a mountainous region will provide us with better training opportunities that than what can be provided in our facilities that we currently have. Even if we were to simply train outside in the cold, it would be inferior to this option."

"I see! I apologise for interrupting!" Iida replied.

"So, get your hero costumes and be ready within thirty minutes." Aizawa dismissed them.

As the group dispersed into their different social groups within the class, Izuku found himself approached by his close friends Uraraka and Todoroki.

"How unexpected this is!" Iida began, arms held out at perpendicular angles, the universal sign that he was excited. "Truly, UA does keep us on our toes as we undergo our training to become fully fledged heroes!"

"No kidding!" Uraraka piped up energetically, bouncing in place. "I've never gone so far away from home before, it's gonna be fun!"

"I do find it strange how UA is so willing to take us so far away from here given how our previous trip ended…" Todoroki considered out loud, causing both Uraraka and Iida to cease in their merriment as Izuku placed his hand on his chin, focusing into what had been dubbed a "mutter storm."

"Perhaps they're choosing to take us to this location in the hopes of catching the villains off guard? After all, ignoring what happened at the summer camp, we haven't encountered the villains outside of heavily populated areas so perhaps taking us to an isolated area is a good way of ensuring that there will be little to no chance of the League of Villains interfering with our training." He paused for a quick breath, but didn't break out of his trance. "Or they could be trying to isolate the variable, being our class, so that they can find out whether the League is following us specifically or if our encounters have actually been completely random or circumstantial. It's possible that-"

"Deku!" Uraraka called out loudly, having listened to his train of thought for the past few minutes and finally deciding that she'd heard enough of his hypotheses. Jumping slightly out of shock, Izuku immediately realised what had happened and apologised profusely. "It's no biggie, I just wanted to know what you were thinking about but I suppose that you've already given the long-winded version." She giggled to herself, causing the freckled boy to blush profusely.

"Anyway." Iida spoke up, "We mustn't forget that we have a strict time limit to get ready, so we must be away to prepare ourselves!" He declared, speeding off up the stairs, with Todoroki following silently at a much more casual pace.

"Shall we go, Deku?" Uraraka leant in front of him at an angle which was _just so gosh darn cute_ as he nodded, his movements stiff due to him still not being completely used to being around people of the opposite gender.

* * *

The bus ride hadn't been particularly eventful, as the majority of the class was awaiting what kind of exercises they'd be made to do under the tutelage of their famously cruel teacher. All that they knew was that it was going to be _cold_ given how grey the sky was and with the snow continuing to pile up the further north they went.

As the vehicle came to a halt at the foot of the mountain, the class disembarked and lined up in orderly fashion, as per their class representative's orders, and awaited further instruction from Aizawa.

"As discussed, we're going to be doing some cold weather training today." He began tiredly. "We'll start with some one on one combat before moving onto some combat carried out in pairs. I'll be supervising you all as you undergo this, but make sure not to get too carried away." He finished, glaring at Bakugo briefly much to the hot-headed boy's chagrin.

Shuffling inside his coat, the tired teacher pulled out a list of match-ups and handed it to Yaoyorozu before climbing into his sleeping bag and propped himself up so that he was facing an area suitable for the exercises planned for the day, nodding to the girl implying that he wanted her to take over for him for the moment.

Unruffling the paper in front of herself, she cleared her throat as she began listing off the combinations. "We shall carry out these fights simultaneously to maximise the efficiency of our time here today. Ashido shall face Sato, Kirishima shall face Kaminari, Iida will face Bakugo and Aoyama will be facing myself." She finished, placing the paper in her reference notebook on the back of her costume. "We shall carry out the rest of the matches after these initial ones so as to not strain our teacher too much."

Giving his nod of approval, Aizawa settled himself in as the students began moving towards a suitable location for their bout. Within seconds, the four pairs immediately began rushing towards each other, a certain blonde-haired boy screaming particularly loudly as he did.

As Aoyama halted his charge to fire off a few navel lasers at the ponytailed girl, Iida could be seen dashing underneath Bakugo's furious assault, with his initial explosions failing him he propelled himself upwards, flipping backwards to reaffirm the speedy hero in training's location. Elsewhere, Mina could be seen hurling globs of acid at a beefed-up Sato, who seemed to be simply brushing off the acid as if it were harmless rain. Kaminari seemed to be having a much tougher time against his opponent, however, as it appeared that Kirishima's hardening quirk came with some level of resistance to the electric boy's power.

As the chaos continued to unfold, Ochako took in the sight before her, noticing how each of the different quirks played off each other and who had an advantage due to their quirk matchup. She particularly noticed how Iida and Bakugo seemed to have an incredibly even match, all things considered – Iida's speed allowed him to utilise a "hit and run" tactic with the explosive hero in training, getting some chip damage in whilst successfully avoiding any damage that the hot tempered boy could've done to him.

Next to her, she could hear her best friend over-analysing the scene in front of her, stirring up another 'mutter-storm' as he vocalised his train of thought.

"Mina could easily keep Sato at a distance if she upped the concentration of her acid, but maybe she's holding herself back so she doesn't hurt him? Or maybe upping the concentration of the acid makes the acid heavier so that she can't throw it as far? I wonder if she'd be willing to explain what her thought process is later." He paused, looking to the match between Aoyama and Yaoyorozu, his hand still firmly planted on his chin. "Aoyama still seems to be struggling with firing his laser in more than short bursts, perhaps to his detriment. Yaoyorozu is holding her own particularly well too, I wonder whether she'd be able to create a shield which could withstand Aoyama's laser? Maybe she should experiment with him to find a material which would best suit the job. Something which is both light and durable would be ideal, but I don't actually know how strong his laser is, so testing different materials would be a good place to start…"

His thought process was cut off by the roar of his blond-haired childhood friend, who was apparently getting extremely irritated with Iida's current tactics. He thrust his arm directly out in front of him and grabbed the grenade pin, pulling it out immediately, giving none of the onlookers, including Aizawa, any time to react.

An explosion the size of a building blew forth from his gauntlet, the knockback of which could be felt extensively by everyone in the area. The sheer amount of force generated by the explosion not only blew the snow in the surrounding area away almost instantaneously, but it also entirely engulfed Iida.

"Iida!" Izuku screamed, powering up Full Cowl as quickly as he could to rush towards his friend.

"Deku!" Ochako shouted after him, quickly chasing him as well. She knew full well that it was _far_ from safe given the circumstances, and wanted to stop him from doing anything, well… _stupid._

Unfortunately, that decision would be made for her, as soon after she chased after the green haired boy, the ground beneath the two of them, which had turned out to be part of a glacier, began to collapse in on itself, seemingly being broken apart by the explosive force of Bakugo's stunt.

Ochako began to fall downwards, losing her footing as the crumbling ice continued to seemingly disappear as each second passed. Quickly activating her own quirk on herself, she began to float weightlessly, however this only slowed down the problem, as she was still falling downwards into the ever-expanding abyss below her.

"Deku!" She shouted once again, seeing him desperately fighting a losing battle against gravity and the crumbling ice. She pushed herself off a falling ledge towards the stubborn hero in training, grabbing onto him and activating her quirk, making him weightless as well. She could hear him protesting, shouting about needed to get to Iida as quickly as possible, but she refused – of course, she cared about Iida as well, she knew that he would likely be in pain given what he had just endured, but right now, making sure that Deku didn't hurt _himself_ was more of a priority.

Her plan had been simple – grab Deku, float away from the crumbling mess of the glacier, and release her quirk's effect on the two of them in a safe location so they could avoid any injuries. Unfortunately, her nausea got the better of her, forcing her to release her quirk far earlier than she'd intended. The issue with this was that they were still above the particularly massive pit that Bakugo's explosion had caused, and with seemingly no way to avoid the drop below them, they fell straight down into the darkness, with Izuku turning to shield Ochako from the fall.

* * *

The pain that Izuku felt as he awoke after the fall wasn't a sensation he particularly wanted to experience ever again, speaking frankly. He refused to open his eyes, as it honestly didn't feel as bad with his eyes closed. However, he knew he couldn't stay where he was – the others would be worried for his safety. His and…

Snapping his eyes open, he immediately began looking around for Uraraka, looking for any sign of the pink-cheeked girl.

Evidently his movement caused some stirring from the girl in question, as she subconsciously began to nuzzle gently into his chest, still holding onto him with an exceptionally strong grip. Clearly, she wasn't aware that she still had him in her grasp, he thought to himself as he blushed profusely.

Resting his head against the ice behind him, he suddenly became acutely aware of a sharp, agonising pain on his left, just slightly above his hip. Lifting his head once again, he saw the reason for the pain.

"…no, no, nononononono…" he muttered to himself, unable to accept the sight before him.

A sizeable chunk of ice, roughly the size of a baguette, was protruding from his gut, the sheen of his blood glazing the surface of the lump of ice.

He had to stop himself from vomiting immediately at the sight, bringing his left arm up to his mouth as quickly as he could to smother the sounds of panicked gasping, but to little avail. Whilst the actual sound coming from him had been minimalised, that didn't stop the constant rising and falling of his chest to awaken the unconscious girl who was still holding onto the impaled boy with all her might.

"Muh…" She mumbled, her grip loosening as she finally came to her senses. "Deku…?"

Trying to regain control over his breathing, Izuku dropped his hand from his mouth so as to not alarm the girl. "H-hey." He said quietly, attempting to keep his voice as calm as possible.

She pushed herself up, seemingly unaware of her previous position. "Where are we…?" She asked, seeming to try to recall the events which had led up to this moment. Suddenly, her eyes widened, with her rushing forward to check on the incapacitated boy. "Deku! Are you okay? Did the fall hurt you? I'm sorry, it didn't go to plan…"

"I-it's fine, Uraraka!" Izuku replied, trying desperately not to draw attention to the frostly impalement protruding from his person. "You did what you had to, d-don't apologise for that!"

"But still…" She looked downwards as Izuku's heart dropped – she was almost certain to see it now.

Her eyes widening once again, the brown-haired girl immediately looked up to the injured boy.

"Deku!" She exclaimed, gesturing to the protruding spike of ice currently embedded in the young boy's body. "Why didn't you say you were injured?! Does it hurt?! What should we do?! What _can_ we do?! Are… are you going to die?!" She panicked, her worries and fears snowballing faster and faster.

"Uraraka!" He shouted, trying to ignore the spike of pain that arose from doing so, "I'm fine. As long as we don't remove it, I won't bleed out." He spoke rationally, musing to himself that Aizawa would be proud of this sudden mindset he pushed himself into. "It's not a good situation, far from it, but there's little we can do without help."

"…so what do we do?" She muttered dejectedly.

Sighing and attempting to make himself comfortable given the circumstances, he replied, "We wait. That's all we can do."

He was aware he was acting confident in the face of the grave circumstances he was currently undergoing. He knew that the ice currently impaling him was likely to melt at any point, at which point he would begin bleeding out. Given how cold he was due to the environment, he knew it may take a little longer than usual for his body temperature to radiate enough heat, but that wouldn't buy him much time.

This wound was a ticking time bomb, and he knew that once it came to its end, it may be the end of him.

But he had to be strong – Uraraka had seen him in _incredibly _dire situations in the past, between him nearly getting blipped out of existence due to Eri's power and when his own quirk had nearly spiralled out of control and threatened to take everyone in the current vicinity out with him. And in both situations, she'd risen to the occasion to save him, whether indirectly or directly, but despite that, she did have a habit of worrying over the green haired boy.

Whilst he didn't know that she cared to the degree that she actually did, he did know that it was enough to cause her to panic to the degree that she had just done before he'd managed to calm her down.

"…is there anything I can do to help?" Uraraka offered hesitantly, her brown eyes looking deep into Izuku's own green ones.

"Just… keep me company?" He offered quietly. "I don't wanna pass out because of…" He finished, gesturing to the obvious elephant in the room.

'_He thinks that if he falls asleep with that, he won't wake up again…'_ Uraraka realised internally, her face blanching as she did.

She knew she had to distract him somehow – keep his mind off the issue at hand.

Quickly wiping the look of distraught from her face, she gave him the best smile she could as she thought up something – _anything_ – to discuss with the incapacitated boy. "S-so!" She started, the strain to keep positive clear in her voice, but Izuku appreciated the effort that she was undergoing to make him feel better. "You remember the trial battles we had against 1-B recently?"

Smiling back at her, he nodded. "Yeah, it was amazing seeing everyone in action like that!" He exclaimed, wincing slightly at how the ice would grind against his tender flesh as he spoke. He prayed that the girl who was already fretting over him enough as it was didn't notice his discomfort. "It was also good to see Yaoyorozu come into her own as a leader, she really suits the role."

"Right?!" Ochako replied, sitting herself down next to the boy, close enough so that he wouldn't feel like she was avoiding him, but far enough away so that it wouldn't feel awkward for either of them. "She's done so well after what happened at the sport's festival, she seemed really down after that…"

"Good to see she's managed to bounce back." Izuku continued, thinking back to the event in question. "Oh yeah, and Tokoyami! I didn't know he could use dark shadow to fly!"

"That was a surprise! I wonder who gave him that idea?" She mused, placing her hand on her chin, lightly mocking Izuku for his muttering habits. Lifting her head slightly in a minor realisation, she turned to the green-haired boy. "Maybe the person he interned with? Do you know who that was?"

"I think it was…" He trailed off, as though he was quite literally scanning through the archive of information that was held within his mind.

A lull in the conversation reared its head as the taller boy was lost in thought. Unfortunately for Uraraka, she didn't find this silence to be a comfortable one, unlike silences they'd shared previously. There was an elephant in the room, one which the two of them were both putting off addressing.

Uraraka had just about had it. She'd played out her best friend's request as long as she could, but she was about to snap. Not that she was irritated with her friend, but more that she was furious how he had effectively demanded that he burden it alone, choosing not to confide in her.

So, what, did he think that little of her? Knowing Deku like she did, that was almost certainly not the case. But she couldn't help but notice that little niggling feeling in the back of her mind, the feeling that she wasn't good enough – not only in her hero training, especially in comparison to some of her peers, but also as a friend.

Steeling herself, she gave herself a light slap on each cheek, mentally preparing herself to confront the issue at hand.

"Deku…" She started, breaking the silence and grabbing the boy's attention. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but-"

"Uraraka." He interrupted; concern laid bare over his face. "I know what you're about to say, but please…"

"'Please' what?" She replied fiercely, her emotions beginning to get the better of her. "Don't talk about how you're at risk of dying?! How you don't want to burden me with this because you don't trust me enough?! How can I just stand here and watch…" She paused to catch her breath, tears streaming down her face as she clutched onto his sleeve. As she composed herself to the best of her ability, still shaking in fear of what could happen, she spoke in a much quieter voice. "…and watch you die?"

He kept eye contact with her, his eyes darkening as he realised how his 'rationality' when analysing the situation prior and his decision to shoulder this burden alone had ultimately hurt the person he had wanted to protect. He felt a tear trickle down his cheek as he lifted his left hand, placing it on top of the hand of the desperate girl who'd been clutching onto him like her life depended on it.

The gentle touch he offered the sobbing girl seemed to act as some kind of a trigger for her, as she immediately flung her arms around him and enveloped him into a deep hug, her tears continuously streaming from her eyes and soaking into his shoulder as he awkwardly returned the hug, unsure of how to act in a situation such as this, whilst also withstanding the throbbing pain that surged from his impalement.

His discomfort at having an _actual real girl who is exceptionally cute_ _who is actually hugging him for real_ was to be expected. Nonetheless, he gently, whilst still keeping her in the embrace that they shared, ran his hand through her hair. He didn't know how effective this would've been to calm the poor girl's nerves, but he knew that his mother had done it for him whenever he'd gone to her for comfort, so he could only hope that it offered some semblance of reassurance for the girl in need.

"I…" She sobbed through her tears, sniffling her nose loudly, "I don't want to lose you!" She shouted, refusing to let go of him, as though if he left her grasp, he would cease to exist. "You're too important to me! I… I can't…" She trailed off, going silent as she adjusted herself so that she was positioned slightly more onto his lap, her face hiding in the crook of his neck as her arms tightened around Izuku's body.

"Uraraka, I…" He began, however he stopped immediately afterward, his hand resting on top of her head as his attention was drawn to the mess of ice on his left.

"Deku?" Ochako called out, concerned, turning her head to follow his gaze. She couldn't see anything of interest, outside of how kind of pretty the ice was, which had been a welcome distraction from the thoughts clouding her mind. She'd enjoy the sight more if she wasn't trapped within such a place with a severely injured friend in tow.

He shushed her gently in response, holding his finger to his lips as he did so, staying completely still. He remained in that position for several more moments before Uraraka finally noticed what had caught his attention.

Very quietly, a scraping sound could be heard through the ice, occasionally followed by a sound of something crashing.

"What could that be…?" She whispered quietly, edging closer to her best friend for reassurance.

"I don't know." He replied, equally as quietly. "But we better be ready, just in case." He began to make movements suggesting that he was wanting to stand up, but he was having difficulty with the sniffling girl still currently occupying the space on top of his lap.

"Deku, no!" She shouted as loudly as she could without alerting whoever, or whatever, it was that was currently digging its way towards the two of them. "Stay down, you've got enough to worry about."

"But, Uraraka-" He started to argue, but cut himself off when the constant scraping noise seemed to stop abruptly. For a moment, the two of them were relieved.

That is, until a particularly loud explosion rocked the entire glacier that they were trapped in, debris falling from the ceiling and shattering around them, as a gap in ice, large enough to fit through, emerged directly above them.

Without skipping a beat, Uraraka quickly activated her quirk on both herself and her best friend, making the two of them weightless. She then grabbed him, taking care not to touch the impalement he was currently suffering, and pushed herself off a nearby wall upwards towards the sunlight.

Soon after the refreshing sunlight landed upon their forms, a shot of cellophane flew up, latching onto them and dragging them back towards the surface. Turning towards the source of the material, they were both relieved to see that it came from their classmate, Sero, his smiling face as he pulled them to safety was more than a welcome sight for the two of them.

Touching down to the surface of the glacier, with the gravity quirk girl deactivated her quirk, still holding Deku up under his arm. Iida quickly rushed over to the duo, panic stricken upon his face.

"Iida!" Deku called out, smiling. "You're okay! I was so-"

He was cut off by the taller boy enveloping both Uraraka and Midoriya in a hug, his strong arms almost suffocating them in the motion.

"Do you two have any idea how worried we all were?" He sobbed, tears staining his cheeks as the rest of the class gathered around them with equally concerned looks donning their faces. "…how worried I was?" He added quietly.

"I'm sorry…" Izuku apologised, though he had nothing else to say for himself.

"However!" He replied loudly, pointing towards his classmates. "Your rescue would not have been successful had it not been for the relentless efforts of our classmates! Especially the efforts of Jirou, whose sensitive hearing allowed us to know where in the ice you were located."

"Nah, it was nothing." She waved off as a light blush glazed her cheeks. "It was Satou and Kirishima who did all the muscle work of breaking the ice." She snickered. "Well, they did, until Bakugo got sick of waiting and nearly blew up the whole glacier."

The hot headed brat merely scoffed in response, kicking a lump of snow in distaste.

"Really, we can't take you anywhere, can we? Problem child?" Aizawa's voice spoke harshly, his eyes as dead as they usually were as he stared at the duo, but despite his harshness, there was a gentle undertone beneath his calm demeanour. It was his way of showing that he cared, the members of class 1-A knew, but they also all knew better than to call him out on it. "C'mon, we better get that seen to as soon as possible." He finished, gesturing to the injury in question.

As the successor to All Might limped towards his teacher with the assistance of both Iida and Uraraka, the girl in question looked towards her best friend fondly, catching his gaze as he looked back to her.

"I'm sorry, Uraraka…" He muttered, loud enough so that only she could hear him. "I promise you; I won't die, I'll live on… for you." He finished, lightly blushing.

Upon hearing this, Uraraka blushed in a similar manner, but smiled back confidently. Sure, he had trouble with self-preservation at times, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

Meanwhile, from behind the trio following Aizawa, a certain punk rock hero was completely red in the face, much to her ponytailed friend's concern. _'Geez…'_ She thought to herself, _'Do they know how sappy they were under there?'_


End file.
